NIAC Leads 80+ Organizations in Urging President Biden to Halt Israel’s March to Regional War

National Iranian American Council (NIAC) led more than 80 organizations representing diverse American communities in sending a letter to President Biden urging that he halt Israel’s march to regional war. This call comes in the wake of heightened regional tensions following Israel’s expansion of the war in Gaza into Lebanon and Iran’s missile strike on Israel, with U.S. officials indicating they may be working to moderate Israel’s response and reduce risks of regional war. Some of the national organizations signing on to the letter include Just Foreign Policy, Friends Committee on National Legislation, IfNotNow, US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), CODEPINK, Peace Action and Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

The primary ask behind this letter is that the Biden administration utilize the significant leverage it has to rein in Netanyahu as he continues to proceed with a consistently failed “de-escalation through escalation” approach throughout the region that has cost countless civilian lives. As stated in the letter:

“It is not in the national interest for the U.S. to be led into a war with Iran by Benjamin Netanyhu’s government in Israel. It is in the strong national interest to utilize diplomacy, backed by full American leverage – including withholding further offensive weapons transfers to Israel’s military – to move all the parties back from the brink and toward a ceasefire that ends the devastation of Gaza and Lebanon and reverses the slide to regional war.”

This strong anti-war letter underscores the urgent need for the Biden administration to de-escalate and respect Congressional war powers, abstaining from introducing American soldiers into an unauthorized conflict that would be devastating to U.S. interests.

The full text of the letter is included below: